


Surprise

by Dazzledfirestar



Category: Push (2009)
Genre: Age Difference, F/M, Future Fic, Kissing, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-28
Updated: 2011-06-28
Packaged: 2017-10-20 20:05:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/216628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dazzledfirestar/pseuds/Dazzledfirestar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cassie finally understands what her mother meant when she told her that some things weren't meant to be seen ahead of time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Surprise

_“How long do you think you can keep running?”_

 

She was 15 when a Division agent asked her that. She didn’t have a solid answer for the woman before Nick moved her through the nearby window. She’d never really seen herself stable, settled, not running. Its how things were for her. Its how they were in nearly every single future she’d seen. Always the hounds at her heels, but since she was thirteen, it wasn’t just her heels she was concerned with. She wasn’t entirely sure when things had changed. She should have seen it, but maybe something in her mind didn’t want to see it. Didn’t want to know that she’d lose him eventually. Even without the visions she was sure this arrangement wouldn’t last forever. Even as the future changed, over and over again, even as she scribbled it all down in her books, she knew, knew without seeing it. So that question haunted her for years.

 

“So, what do you want to do tonight?”

 

His voice drew her gaze from the note book in her hands. “Same thing we do every other night?”

 

“Come on. It’s your birthday. We should do something.” He sat up a little on the battered couch. “Dinner?”

 

“Yeah, sure. As long as it’s not Dim Sum we’re good.” She closed the book with a sigh. All the years running around Asia killed her taste for Asian food in all its forms and glory.

 

“Sushi then?” He smirked at her.

 

“How did you get to be so funny, Nick?” She shook her head a little and grabbed her coat. “At least now you can’t get all bitchy when I want a drink.” She was reached for the door handle when the vision hit her. She hissed, her hand going to her forehead.

 

“Cassie? What is it?”

 

A sweater… Nick’s sweater with a giant blood stain on it. Great… here we go again. She sighed and she reached for her note book intent on putting down what she was seeing when she realized _what_ she was seeing; what was happening in the room with the sweater on the floor. _Nick’s_ room! Her eyes grew wide. “Holy shit…” She couldn’t draw that… he’d want to see it and… she couldn’t draw _that_. And she would absolutely not want a drink to celebrate her birthday either. No need to intensify… _that_.

 

“Cassie?” His hands were on her shoulders.

 

She shook him off, pulling her bag on over her shoulder. “Nothing. Just realized you’re going to make me pay for my own birthday dinner.”

 

“Hey, it’s practically tradition now, isn’t it?” He smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She tried to suppress the shiver, or disguise it as a reaction to the blistering wind that whistled around them as they went out the door. If he picked up on how uncomfortable she suddenly was, he’d want to know why. And if it had been another doom and gloom, we’re going to die kind of thing, she’d just tell him, flat out, no bullshit. But… _that_ … no. She couldn’t just tell him _that_.

 

The advice she had gotten from her mother before she was old enough to really understand it rang in her head.

 

 _Sometimes, baby, you’ll see things that you’d rather not see ahead of time._

 

She’d always assumed her mother had meant the bad stuff. Seeing people she liked, people she cared about hurt and dying. Now, she got it. Some things people aren’t meant to see ahead of time. Some things should be spontaneous for a normal 18 year old girl. She’d rarely gotten that over the years. And now… for the first time in a long time, she wished she could have that.

 

“What did you really see?” His voice yanked her back into the present.

 

“What?”

 

“You paying for dinner wouldn’t have you wound up so tight.” He stopped her. “Is it Division?”

 

“No…” as soon as he said the word, her mind twitched again. A vision cut around her words. Glass breaking, Nick going through a huge plate glass window of a… a restaurant. Greek, she thought… there was a man dancing on the sign. Division agents… fuck. “Yeah. Yes… we need to… they know where we’re going.”

 

“So we go somewhere else.” His casual words showed none of the sudden anxiety on his face.

 

“They’re in the neighborhood.”

 

“Just keep moving, Cass.”

 

“Gee, thanks Nick. I never would have figured that out on my own.” She heard him chuckle a little despite the danger. It must have been one of those moments when he realized she wasn’t 13 anymore and they’d been running around the world for five years. She nearly shook her head. You’d think that realizing it once would be enough.

 

They weaved through back alleys, never picked a direction consciously, just letting the wind blow them wherever it decided they should go. Her breath caught as they reached a main street again. The dancing man… fuck! “Nick… we gotta go… they’re…” She didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence as a bullet hit the brick wall behind them and he shoved her back behind the dumpster.

 

“Cassie! Go!” the bright flashes of him deflecting the bullets lit up the back alley.

 

“No!” She pulled her gun out of the bag she always had slung over her shoulder. “Not without…” Her statement ended with a grunt as the dumpster next to her pinned her to the wall. She slipped her gun hand to the small of her back, knowing it would look like she was trying to push herself off the wall if the agent that had her pinned came in to gloat about how wonderful they were. And they always came in close to gloat. Always.

 

“I told you you couldn’t run forever, little girl.” The agent laughed a little. It was the same woman that had gloated at her three years earlier. “Didn’t you see this coming?”

 

“Wouldn’t be good at my job if I didn’t.” Cassie squirmed a little more as the dumpster pressed in harder.

 

“A friend of mine is a Watcher.” The agent smirked. “Even if you survive this… which you won’t… he’ll never love you.”

 

Cassie’s eyes widened. “Fuck you.” She couldn’t bring herself to say much more be it because of the impact of this little revelation, or the dumpster pressing the air out of her lungs, she wasn’t sure.

 

“Such language from such a little girl.”

 

It was now or never, and she knew it. If the dumpster pressed any harder, she wouldn’t be able to get the gun out again. “Your friend must be a shitty Watcher.” She whipped the gun out and pulled the trigger before the Mover could react. Pushing out from behind the dumpster was easy after that. She took a few deep breaths, ignoring the stabbing pain in her ribs. One might be broken, but it didn’t feel that bad, probably just bruised. She ran out into the street in time to see what she’d already seen. Nick flying through a plate glass window. She screamed; she couldn’t stop it from coming out.

 

The sound should have gotten the attention of the agent Nick had been fighting, but no one came. She hoped that in the moment he or she had sent Nick through the glass, he’d sent them through the back wall of the building… and the next one over. She repeated his name over and over as she knelt down next to him. “Please get up… please…”

 

He blinked at her, flinching a little as he tried to move. “It’s not bad, Cass…” His hand instinctually moved to his side, his sweater already damp with blood. “We need to get…”

 

“Yeah, like right now. Can you walk?” She tried to help him to his feet. He wobbled a little. “Alright… let’s go.” They moved as quickly as they could back to the apartment. She’d pack everything after she got him patched up. There wasn’t a Stitch they could trust anywhere nearby, so the supply of bandages and pain killers would have to do.

 

She flinched a little as she bent down to grab the first aid kit. He noticed. “Are you…?”

 

“I’m fine.” She waved him off. “Get your sweater off.”

 

He chuckled again. “Just trying to get me naked, kid?”

 

“Yeah, it’s my one and only goal. Now do you want to be a smart ass and bleed to death, or do you want me to help?” He hissed softly as he pulled the sweater off and tossed it to the floor. They’d burn it before they left. No chance of a division sniff getting a hold of it then. She worked quickly, bandaging the scrapes. “I don’t think you even need stitches.” She made a small impressed sound.

 

“Well, good. First time for everything.” He turned toward her as she packed up the antiseptic and the remaining bandages. “Thanks.” He stretched a little, hissing again. The sound made her turn back to him. She watched the muscles in his shoulder flex a little as he reached for a fresh shirt. Her breath caught. Her eyes fell to the sweater on the floor. “Cassie?”

 

She was sure she looked like a deer in the headlights. They didn’t have time for this. They needed to pack up and get out of town as fast as possible. She kept tell herself that as she moved toward the bed and sat down. “Nick… I saw this…” her voice was barely audible.

 

“Saw what?” His brow furrowed a little.

 

She shook her head, leaning in, ignoring the pain in her ribs as she pressed her lips to his. “Let it be a surprise.”


End file.
